


Extraordinary Ordinary Man

by sylviarachel



Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Gen, POV First Person, Sherlock Being Sherlock
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-03
Updated: 2013-09-03
Packaged: 2017-12-25 12:49:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 419
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/953291
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sylviarachel/pseuds/sylviarachel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Unlike virtually everyone else Sherlock knows, John Watson is not boring. Why?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Extraordinary Ordinary Man

Within seconds of meeting John, I could see the limp was psychosomatic. Within hours, he’d realized I was right. It was satisfying to be proved right, of course, especially given the business with his sister. Missing that trick unbalanced me slightly; seeing John leaping from roof to roof, limp-less, restored the balance. Always satisfying to be right. But it was something else, too, some other kind of satisfying that I couldn't identify.

John: so utterly straightforward, so easily read, so guileless, so predictable; so interesting, so surprising, so productive of baffling new experiences. How can someone be all of those things simultaneously?

A puzzle. John is a puzzle. An ordinary, extraordinary person. Are all human beings so extraordinary, under their very boring exteriors? Surely not.

Mrs Hudson, for instance: Not extraordinary. Reliably comforting; occasionally tedious; often useful. DI Lestrade: Not extraordinary, though occasionally interesting. DS Donovan: Very much not not extraordinary. Reliably hostile, tedious and annoying.

Second extraordinary thing about John: He thinks I am extraordinary. Not a freak. Amazing. Not repulsive.

Third extraordinary thing about John: Unlike every other person ever (excepting possibly Molly; but Molly runs away: John never runs away), appears to enjoy spending time with me.

Fourth extraordinary thing about John: For some reason, other people react better to me (and by _better_ I of course mean _less badly_ ) in his presence. Extraordinary corollary: When he is present, I react better to other people. (N.B.: Within certain limits. It goes without saying that no power on earth could make Anderson _not annoying_.) Suspect he secretes some sort of calming pheromone. (Memorandum: Design experiment to test this hypothesis.)

Fifth extraordinary thing about John: He cares about my public reputation, not for reasons of ego, but out of a sense of fairness and concern for the truth. Extraordinary corollary: I have begun to care about John's opinion of me.

Sixth extraordinary thing about John: He is good company. Better than the skull. Almost never annoying.

This is the thing, the new and extraordinary thing: Leaving the cane behind made John happy, and I am happier when John is happy. (Query: Is this what it means to have a friend?)

This is the other new thing: I would miss John if he went away. He is ordinary and at the same time extraordinary, and I want to understand why. What is that about? How can one person be both things simultaneously? How is it that John is not boring?

(Memorandum: Make sure John does not go away.)


End file.
